Taylor Wessing has decided to support firms affected by the UK's Senior Managers and Certification Regime by presenting them with its second new 'tech tool' in two months.

The international law firm is now offering its free software at https://taylorwessing.com/en/smcr/tool while warning firms that the regime is going to be extended to all FCA solo-regulated firms on 9 December next year. Any firms that are not compliant by that date could face enforcement action.

The software apparently enables firms to sort themselves into the categories they must fill for the purposes of the SM&CR - Limited Scope, Core or Enhanced - and to discover the extent to which the regime applies to them.

Depending on the outcome of the initial analysis, the software then identifies the things that they have to do before next year's deadline.

The tool is Taylor Wessing's latest development using TW:navigate, a cognitive reasoning platform used to help inform whether a piece of legislation or legal development affects an individual or their business.

TW:navigate is part of the firm's legal tech offering, 'TechSet', which combines legal experience with the latest technology to provide the most advanced methods of servicing clients.

The law firm believes that financial firms affected by the extension cannot afford to wait until the final deadline before they decide on the steps they ought to take in terms of new working practices, procedures and policies.

Partner Jonathan Rogers, before jumping ship to join the law firm of White & Case, took care to say: "The financial crisis of 2008 was a wake-up call to the inadequacies of global financial regulation, particularly in the delivery of individual accountability. It's taken 10 years for the FCA to introduce the new regime and, in similar vein to the crisis itself, the consequences could take a long time to bounce back from, if a firm's reputation is able to withstand this at all."